Former Olympic athlete Matthew Syed shared a startlingly revelation with Times Online: Apparently all of these hot, well-conditioned Olympic athletes are having no issues getting laid.

This sex fest was not limited to Barcelona: the same thing happened in Sydney in 2000, my second Olympics as an athlete, and is happening right here in Beijing, where this time I’m a commentator. I spoke to an Aussie table tennis player this week to check out the village vibe and he launched into the breathless patter common to any Olympic debutant: “It is unbelievable in there; everyone is totally crazy once they are out of their competitions. God knows what it is going to be like this weekend. It is like a world within a world.” A British runner (anonymous again: athletes are not supposed to talk to journalists unaccompanied by a PR type, least of all about sex) said: “The swimmers finished earlier in the week and it was like there was an eruption.”

But let us get back to all the sex going down in the village. One possible explanation centres on the fact that Olympic athletes have to display an unnatural (and, it has to be said, wholly unhealthy) level of self-discipline in the build-up to big competitions. How else is this going to manifest itself than with a volcanic release of pent-up hedonism? It is a common sight to see recently knocked-out athletes gorging on Magnums and McDonald’s, swilling alcohol and, of course, shagging like crazy. Sometimes all three at the same time. Yet this can be only a part of the explanation because most of the athletes I know are as up for it before and during competition as they are in the immediate aftermath. It is as if sportsmen and women have a higher base level of sexual energy. But why? Can it be that one of the underlying drivers of sporting greatness is also the very thing that produces an overactive sex drive?

I begged, I begged my parents to get me into swimming when I was younger!

Ato Boldon answered a question from Bob Costas about Usain Bolt’s terrific 100m world record run at the beginning of NBC’s primetime coverage on Monday night.

Costas: “How in the world was he able to run 9.69?”

Boldon: “I haven’t had a chance to really wrap my mind around it yet, but a lot of people are just still awestruck by what he was able to do. We just didn’t think that someone that tall would be able to run that sort of time. And… uh… just a great performance, and so far the performance, by far, of these Games.“

By far? Mr. Boldon, I’d like to introduce you to Michael Phelps. Not sure if you’ve heard, but he had a pretty good week in the pool.

Listen in as Michael Phelps talks to ESPN about his achievement at the Bejing Games, what’s in store for London in 2012 and, most importantly, what it feels like to have Chad Johnson challenge him to a race.

Maybe the most memorable part of Michael Phelps’ wonderful Olympic run was the finish of the 100m butterfly. He won the race by 0.01 seconds, so the finish was too close to call even in slow motion. SI.com has a cool frame-by-frame breakdown of the last moments of the race.

Be sure to check out the whole thing, because it’s interesting to see how Phelps’ final half-stroke actually won him the race (when, at the time, he thought it was going to lose him the race). Here’s the final shot for those that still wonder if he was the first to touch the wall. Phelps is on the left.

Cheering fellow American Jason Lezak anchor the U.S. individual relay team to a world record victory in the 400-meter medley, Michael Phelps captured his record eighth gold medal of the Beijing Olympics. He surpassed Mark Spitz’s mark of seven golds at the 1972 Munich Games.

This latest gold medal victory almost sunk before their eyes, as the Americans were in third place behind Japan and Australia going into Phelps’ leg of the race. He dove into the water, and powered the U.S. back in front with his butterfly stroke. Lezak held off Australia’s Eamon Sullivan to secure a world record time of 3:29.34 (Phelps’ seventh world record in Beijing).

Once the official results were posted on the board, it was celebration time for Phelps. And he could not contain himself, as Phelps slapped low-fives with his teammates and threw his arms in the air. He praised the support received from the U.S. swimming team because without them, none of his accomplishments would have been possible.

The final numbers for Phelps are five individual and three relay gold medals in Beijing. Thus far in his career, he has captured a total of 16 medals (14 gold). Phelps has become the all-time winningest Olympian, and the scary thing is, he has at least one more Olympics in him.

Michael Phelps’ final stroke got his hands on the wall one-hundredth of a second ahead of Serbian Milorad Cavic to secure his seventh gold medal in the 100-meter butterfly. He swam into history by matching Mark Spitz’s record of winning seven gold medals in the 1972 Munich Games.

But it did not come without some controversy, as the Serbians filed a protest following the outcome of the race. After careful review of the race tape provided by FINA (swimming’s governing body), the Serbian delegation conceded victory to Phelps. The tape was slowed to one frame for every 10-thousandth of a second to show the American actually touching the wall first at the end of the race.

He was sluggish at the start, as Phelps was seventh (out of eight) at the turn. Then he put it into high gear, as his long arms began windmilling through the water. Phelps was able to close the gap on Cavic in no time.

Tomorrow evening, Phelps will return to swim his final event of the games, as he takes the butterfly leg of the U.S. medley relay team. The Americans are favored, so Phelps should win his record-breaking eighth gold medal. Australia has a great relay team, so it should be quite a race.

- I do not know if you heard but Brett Favre has un-retired. And he will be playing this season in New York for the Jets. Sorry ESPN, his first game back will be on the NFL Network on Saturday at 8 p.m. EST. Maybe Rachel Nichols can give updates from the sidelines on Favre’s progress in grasping the Jets offense for ESPN News.

- The men’s 100-meter finals in track & field take place on Saturday evening. It could be the most competitive event at the Olympics, as all of the contenders have beaten one another in the past. Asafa Powell of Jamaica was defeated by USA’s Tyson Gay at the World Championships so badly that he disappeared from the scene. His countryman, Usain Bolt, returned the favor by beating Gay this past May. All three will run in Beijing, and it might just be the best 10 seconds of the Olympiad.

- Michael Phelps is on target to break Mark Spitz’s record of seven gold medals at one Olympic competition. The 100-meter butterfly is this evening, with the 4 x 100 medley relay wrapping up the swimming competition (and Phelps’ quest) on Saturday night.

- The top matchup in baseball this weekend could be a possible playoff preview between the Milwaukee Brewers and Los Angeles Dodgers at Chavez Ravine. Both teams made significant additions to improve their chances of playing into October, so this should be a good series.

Michael Phelps goes for seven gold medals tonight when he swims the 100-meter butterfly, the only event in which he doesn’t hold the world record. The race is a short one, so any mistake could cost him the win. Throw in the fact that American Ian Crocker is a serious threat and you have the makings for a very interesting race.

But the story doesn’t stop there.

Crocker has held the record since July 26, 2003, when he broke it at the World Championships, and has since lowered the mark twice. Before Crocker, Phelps held the record for one day — his reign lasting from semifinals until finals the next night, when Crocker took the record, and the world title.

Phelps got revenge in Athens, beating Crocker by .04 of a second for his fifth gold medal. That left Crocker with silver to add to his bronze, which he earned earlier in the week when a poor swim on the 4x100m freestyle relay left the favored U.S. team in a disappointing third.

The next day Phelps, having earned a spot on the 4x100m medley relay by winning the 100m fly, announced he would cede his spot to Crocker. Phelps would earn a medal anyway for his butterfly swim in the preliminaries, and gave Crocker, who was the world-record holder and more experienced relay swimmer, the chance to earn gold.

“He was the fastest 100m butterflyer, and I wanted to give him the opportunity to get up and get his gold medal,” Phelps said.

Crocker and his teammates won and, with Phelps shouting from the stands, shattered the world record. After the medal ceremony, in a moment that didn’t go unnoticed, Crocker and Phelps shared a hug as the team walked by.

“It was an opportunity that it’s hard to say thank you for,” Crocker said after the race. “And I just wanted to do it justice by going out and giving it my best shot.”

So, theoretically, if Crocker were to deny Phelps his seventh gold medal by winning the 100-meter butterfly, he could offer up his spot in the 4x100m medley relay and allow Phelps to have a chance to tie Mark Spitz’s record of seven gold medals in one Olympiad.

It would be only fair after what Phelps did for Crocker back in 2004, right? If Crocker wins the butterfly, he’s under no obligation to give up his spot in the relay, but my guess is that he’d be under tremendous pressure to do so.

It has been a storybook Olympics for Phelps, but tonight’s race could be the toughest test he’s faced so far. If Crocker wins, he’ll have his own test to face, a moral one.

Another day, another gold medal, and another world-record swim for Michael Phelps.

He dominated from the starter’s gun to the final touch, as Phelps captured his sixth gold medal in Beijing by winning 200-meter individual medley race with a time of 1:54.23. He also set his sixth world record by breaking the old mark of 1:54.80 which he set last month at the U.S. trials.

Ryan Lochte had only a 29-minute rest between the 200-meter backstroke and 200 IM, and it showed. He could not keep up with Phelps’ pace and had to settle for the bronze medal. Lochte’s consolation prize was a world record and his first career individual gold medal in the backstroke. He edged American teammate Aaron Peirsol with a time of 1:53.94 to break the world mark they shared together.

Next up for Phelps is the 100-meter butterfly finals on Friday evening and if all goes according to plan, the record-breaker will come on Saturday evening in the 400-meter relay, a race that the Americans are heavily favored to win.

Anyone who is paying any attention to the Olympics has heard that swimmer Michael Phelps is trying to break Mark Spitz’s record of seven gold medals in one Olympiad. This involves 17 races over seven days and he usually has at least three swims per day. As an example, here’s his itinerary for Wednesday:

6:30am – Wake Up
6:45am – Breakfast
7:30am – Bus to Pool
7:45am – Arrive at Pool
8:00am – Stretch
8:30am – 2400M Warm Up
10:18am – 200 Fly Final
10:30am – Warm Down 1000M
10:59am – 200 Fly Medal Ceremony
11:16am – 4×200 Free Relay Final
11:30am – Warm Down 300m
11:38am – 4×200 Free Medal Ceremony
11:55am – Warm down 800m
12:15pm – Press Conference
12:45pm – Doping Control Test
1:45pm – Bus to Olympic Village
2:00pm – Lunch
2:30pm – Rest
4:00pm – Team Meeting
5:00pm – Bus to Pool
5:15pm – Arrive at Pool
5:30pm – Stretch
5:45pm – Warm up 2400M
8:55pm – 200IM Prelim
9:10pm – Warm down 800M
9:45pm – Bus to Olympic Village
10:00pm – Dinner
11:00pm – Bed

Imagine doing that for a week straight!